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Winthrop's Andre Smith, left, looks for an open pass as Ohio State's Aaron Craft tries to steal the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)
(Photo by AP Photo)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – When they needed it during the second half Tuesday night, Ohio State leaned on what the Buckeyes think will always be there: Deshaun Thomas' scoring and the defense of guards Aaron Craft and Shannon Scott.

After missing nine straight shots at one point, Thomas scored 10 points in less than three minutes. And the Buckeyes stopped Winthrop on 10 straight possessions thanks to their backcourt, with Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey calling Craft a “piranha” on defense. Eventually those two parts of the game paved the way for the No. 7 Buckeyes (9-1) to hold off the Eagles 65-55.

But with Ohio State getting ready to host No. 9 Kansas on Saturday, the first half and parts of the second half showed the Buckeyes at their worst, slacking on both ends of the floor and unable to generate any offense outside of Thomas, who was still desperate, and desperately needed by his team, to shoot despite going 2-for-9 in the first half.

Kelsey said the underdog Eagles (4-5) had to “muddy” the game and limit possessions, and they did.

“It's certainly not a work of art,” Kelsey said. “It looks like a tractor pull sometimes.”

After scoring 90 points and running and pushing the tempo almost at will in Saturday's win over UNC Asheville, the Buckeyes on Tuesday didn't know how to get out of the muck.

“You shoot 34 percent in the first half and have four offensive rebounds and it tells you you probably aren't tuned in the way we need to be,” OSU coach Thad Matta said. “You're still trying to learn your team a little bit and have a little understanding of what do you need to say, what do you need to do to get the guys going out there? When things weren't gong as well as we wanted them to go, I didn't think we came together as well as we needed to.”

Eventually, thanks to the two building blocks of the team, they did turn it around. But if the Buckeyes try this act against the Jayhawks, who blew out Richmond 87-59 on Tuesday, it's not going to work.

“It goes without saying that with the game we have coming up Saturday and then getting into the Big Ten season, we need to get better every day,” Craft said. “It's not like we play tomorrow. We have time to watch and get better from it. But we can't just put it behind us and expect that it doesn't mean that much, because it does. Every game can show us something and we can learn from it. We can't be down on ourselves or frustrated, but at the same time we have to have a sense of urgency. We can't stay the same as a basketball team. We have to get better or we're going to get worse.”

Ohio State didn't practice well going into Tuesday said Thomas, who admitted maybe the team got caught looking ahead to the weekend rematch of last year's Final Four showdown, won by Kansas. Or maybe Tuesday's first half was a glimpse of what can happen to Ohio State on nights when Thomas is cold and the defense isn't there to fall back on.

“We can't have the start we did for this game,” Thomas said.

That's for sure. But the Buckeyes had their sure things on Tuesday. Thomas finished with 21 points on 7-of-21 shooting, while Lenzelle Smith added 14.

“Deshaun Thomas just started being Deshaun Thomas,” Kelsey said, “and he did what All-Americans do. He put the game on his shoulders and grabbed it by the neck.”

And, according to Matta, Craft and Scott on defense were the best part of the game,

“I watched (Craft) on tape and he is phenomenal,” Kelsey said. “He is a tiger on the ball. I've never seen more relentless on the ball defense than Aaron Craft. And when that ball is loose, it's an Aaron Craft ball, because I've never seen someone dive on the ball like that cat. … There was a loose ball in front of our bench and he put his teeth on the ball.”

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